


Firehoses and Tiny Noses

by Burningstars98



Series: Blessings in Disguise [2]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Rescue Bots
Genre: Carrying, Fatherhood, Marriage, Mechpreg, Miscarriage, New Parent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:00:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29044989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burningstars98/pseuds/Burningstars98
Summary: After Blades, the bots knew it could happen to anyone. Heatwave's not going to let it stop him from doing his job and saving lives, but between his job, a newborn on the way, and preparations for Kade and Hayley's special day, how much is too much for the firetruck to take?
Relationships: Dani Burns/Taylor, Kade Burns/Hayley (Transformers)
Series: Blessings in Disguise [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2022314
Comments: 26
Kudos: 20





	1. A Trip Up the Mountain

On the secluded island of Griffin Rock, Maine, the garage of the firehouse was rather quiet that morning.   
Salvage and Blurr had left early in the wee hours of the morning and gone to the Rescue Bot Training Center on the mainland, to make sure nothing needed repairs after a storm had hit the coast. A lot of storms had been hitting them, but that was typical of springtime weather. It had kept the Rescue Bots increasingly busy the past few weeks, which enabled Blades to get back to full functionality after what the island was calling the 'Egg Incident.'

Hard to believe it had been so long since that already, almost six months.

Heatwave was sparring with his dummy, Chase and Boulder were both sitting and reading, and Blades was trying his hand at painting.

"How's the painting going, Blades...?" Boulder murmured.

The helicopter tapped his lips with a finger as he looked at his work in progress. "...I believe the humans would call it 'abstract.'" Blades finally replied with a grimace, "You don't mind having a big helm, do you?"

Boulder chuckled, "Why paint me when you have your own tiny model here?"

Heatwave smirked as he paused in his sparring, "Snowblast's not really in the mood to _pose_ right now..."

Blades looked away from the canvas and over to his son, who was slumped on top of the freezer, wings drooping on either side of it. "I'm sorry, Snowy...!" He cooed, "You look _miserable..._ "

Though he couldn't fly or walk yet, he could crawl and most definitely climb. He'd dig his little clawed fingers into surfaces and shimmy up like Mr. Pettypaws into a tree, which sometimes kept Blades' anxiety up because he'd lose track of the tiny bot and then find him dangling from the rafters like a bat. He liked to hang from things, and Blades dealt with this by letting him wrap his wings around his neck and just dangle when the helicopter was at the Firehouse.  
When the team left for rescues, however, Snowblast would sit in the Command Center with Cody; a solution they'd decided on after the first time Blades left him and Snowblast wailed for hours in the nest because he was all alone.

But as the weather had slowly shifted from cold to warm, there'd been a change in the youngest member of the team as well. As it turned out, he didn't take heat very well, and most of them suspected that it had to do with the abuse his egg had taken before he hatched. Some mornings, Blades would wake up and find Snowblast curled up on the cool, concrete floor of the garage.  
Boulder predicted his systems would eventually adjust to cope with it better as he got older. For now, though, they just did what they could to keep his tiny frame from overheating.

Blades seemed to have downloaded 'Sparklish' at some point because even though none of the others could seem to interpret Snowblast's squeaks and cries, Blades always knew what he needed. He'd sit and squeak back at the tiny bot for hours, a secret conversation that nobody else understood.

Blades walked over to the freezer and collected his son into his arms, stroking his crest and earning a soft squeak in response. "I know... It'll be chilly here again soon."

The loud blaring of the Rescue Alarm caught their attention, and Blades looked at the wall. "...All of us are up." He announced, "Da will be back later, okay?"  
As the Burnses exited the elevator, Blades slipped Snowblast into it and it moved up the shaft.

"What's the emergency?" Heatwave inquired.

"Snowmelt has washed out some of the hiking trails and started a mudslide. We need to get those hikers out of there." Chief informed.

Heatwave nodded, "Rescue Bots, roll to the rescue!"  
___________________________________________________________________________________________________

As the caravan of emergency vehicles made their way up the hillside, they could see the massive amount of melted snow from Mount Griffin had diverted the river somewhat, washing out some of the trails, as the Chief had said.

Heatwave had taken up the rear, and Kade wasn't sure how he felt about it. His partner's engine revved hard as he chugged up the slope, but it was clear to him that the rescue bot was struggling. His wheels spun as they tried to keep traction on the road that was now more mud than gravel, and Kade was certain he heard a clattering sound coming from somewhere under his partner's hood.

"Heatwave, you doing okay?"

"Fine...!" Heatwave hissed, "Don't...Distract me...!"

Kade gripped the wheel tightly as Heatwave finally found something to grip his tires into and jerked forward. The slope softened into a plateau, and they pulled up to the rest of the team.

"Good, you made it." Chief announced, "For a second it looked like you were having some difficulty."

"No problem..." Heatwave panted, though the splatters of mud now coating his sides said otherwise.

"Boulder, Graham, head uphill and see if you can divert this water back towards the river so it won't wash out the trails further. Blades, you and Dani see if you can spot those hikers from the air."

"Got it!" The pair of duos replied before heading off on their jobs.

"The rest of us will search down here on the ground. Stay together and radio us if you run into any problems."

Heatwave nodded and then transformed into bot mode. Kade heard the clattering again, but he didn't comment as his partner trudged through the mud. He was struggling but was obviously not going to admit to it... It was one of the things the two had in common.

Heatwave grunted as he pulled his feet out of the mud, the mud making loud sucking noises as his feet broke free and then squished back in several feet ahead. "Seeing anything?" He asked.

Kade's eyes skimmed over the surrounding trees, finally spotting a flash of pink in one of them. "Over there!"

The firebot trudged towards the tree, where two teenage girls were clinging to the upper branches of the tree. "Need a hand?" Heatwave teased as he held his palm up.

"We wouldn't _mind_ it...!" One of them answered, carefully shifting position until she could drop down, her sister landing beside her. "All of a sudden the trail was just... _Gone_!"

"Hop in, girls." Kade welcomed as his partner opened the cab and he ushered the teens into the seats. "Did you see anybody else around here?"

"No...No wait! We saw Milo! He was going up to the Mount Griffin Trail."

Heatwave looked up the slope and gave a hard sigh, "Of _course_ he did..."

"Can you make it?" Kade inquired.

"Do I have much choice?"  
Heatwave yanked his feet free of the mud, continuing his walk up the slope. A low rumble from above alerted him to an approaching thunderstorm, which would mean rain, which meant more water soaking the ground and loosening it from the slope. He needed to work fast.  
"Milo!?" He hollered, looking around the trees for the man. 

Milo sometimes was more trouble than Heatwave thought he was worth; his eagerness to take drastic measures to simple problems drove the bots up a wall, especially when it resulted in them having to save him from his drastic measures gone bad.

"He also has a bad habit of _not answering_ when you call for him...!" Heatwave thought aloud, optics narrowing. "MILO!"

"Took ya long enough!"  
The New-Yorker accent came from somewhere ahead of them and to the left, and Heatwave gave a hard sigh as he passed some trees, seeing Milo half-submerged in the mud.

_Primus, help me...!_ He thought. He wanted to swear so badly right now, but not in front of the kids in the cab. "Come on, Milo..."  
He wrapped a hand around the man and tugged him free of the mud, optics rolling back into his helm with a sigh when Milo's boots didn't come out with him. "I hope you've got a spare pair because I'm...not...digging..."

"Heatwave?"  
Kade's grip on the wheel tightened as his teammate teetered, catching himself on a nearby boulder to keep from toppling. The lights in his cab were flickering, and the screen that normally showed the bot's face went out completely for several seconds. "Heatwave, don't pass out!" Kade hollered, the girls grabbing onto him with worried glances.

"N-Not...Going to..." Heatwave grunted through gritted teeth. He opened his cab and placed Milo inside before leaning back against the boulder. "...Just gotta rest for a second..."

"You're _not_ okay, are you?"

Heatwave swallowed hard, looking forward as his vision blurred for a moment. He'd been feeling a little out of sorts for a few days, but he couldn't keep it from his partner, not anymore. "...No." He admitted.

"Can you make it back down the slope, Mr. Heatwave?" One of the girls asked.

Heatwave forced himself up onto his feet again, "...I don't have much choice, now do I...?" He panted, "...Chief-"

**We heard you, Heatwave.** Chief Burn's voice came through the comms loud and clear. **Just get those three back to town and then get yourself back to base.**

"Yes sir..." Heatwave took a few steps down the slope, shifting to his hands and knees at places where he felt he might slip.

Kade bit his lip, a memory reaching his mind. "...remember the _last time_ one of you crashed during a-"

"Stop." Heatwave interrupted, "Just stop. I know what you're thinking, and it's false... I don't know what's up with me, but I can tell you with absolute certainty...I am _not_ carrying."


	2. Aha! The Truth Comes Out!

It was fortunate that Blurr and Salvage got back when they did.

A dense fog had rolled in over the island of Griffin Rock and the ocean around it as the sun fell. Though it was not late in the evening, everyone in the town had retreated to their homes early, the fog making it nearly impossible to do anything outside. The chilly, moist air was unwelcoming to anyone out in it, and it left the island in a quiet, eerie state of silence.

But although it was quiet outside, inside the Firehouse, it was not.

"Get her! Get her!" Kade shouted from behind the couch. "Come on Cody, you drive like Mrs. Neederlander!"

Cody grumbled as his fingers fiddled with the controller toggles, trying to beat Dani at yet another round of Auto Rush 4. "If you're so intent on winning Kade, you play it!"

"Nah, that wouldn't be fair to Dani."

Dani grinned, "Yeah, I'd like the possibility to lose on occasion...!"

"Hey!"

Chief Burns rolled his eyes at his kids' rivalry, tempted to make one of those "When I was your age" statements.

Chase crossed his arms. "If this were a real race, you would both be arrested for property damage, reckless driving, poor sportsmanship-"

"But it's not." Heatwave reminded his teammate as he entered the room, "It's just a game."

"Are we really encouraging this type of behavior? Even if it is not in reality?"

"And I thought you were _resting_." Kade inquired, crossing his arms.

"I'm done now," Heatwave muttered, leaving his partner and taking a seat beside Boulder.

The firetruck had gone and placed himself in a stasis pod as soon as they'd dropped off the civilians and then returned to the firehouse, and he'd been there all afternoon. Kade periodically checked on him, and the other bots as well when they returned. His vitals were stable for now, but Blades had decided he would _make_ Heatwave do a diagnostic when he woke up.

Heatwave had never seen their medic so serious and firm with him when he stepped out of the stasis pod. Blades' suggestions had always seemed soft and cautionary like he was afraid to step up to his leader. This had been different.  
"Sit yourself in that medical bay and do a proper diagnostic on yourself." He'd demanded, "If you come out of that room _before_ that amount of time has passed, I will send you back in and lock the door from outside!" When Heatwave had tried to argue back, the helicopter's optics had darkened, glared, and he had pointed a firm finger down the hall. " _March_!"

Personally, Heatwave thought he sounded more like Optimus' medic, Ratchet, in that moment. As soon as he'd sat down in the medical bay, he'd heard Chase and Boulder congratulating Blades on his accomplishment.  
Great, now his entire team was ganging up on him.

Chief Burns wasn't quite sure what to say about the 'encouraging bad sportsmanship' matter, but he _did_ know what to say about the shape stepping in front of the screen. "Uh, Blades?"

"Oh Primus...!" Blades chuckled as he walked over and picked up his son from his position of blocking the humans' view. "Come here, Snowy. You're gonna ruin your optics sitting that close."

"Actually," Graham informed, "There's not any scientific proof that sitting too close will ruin your sight."

Blades gasped at this revelation, looking at his partner. "Dani, you _lied_ to me!"

Dani just grinned, her attention remaining on their game.

"Who would've thought that you'd make such a good papa bird, Blades?" Kade teased.

"Who _didn't_ , is a better question."

"Well-"

"A question that is not to be answered."

Heatwave chuckled, reaching out and stroking Snowblast's little head, the tiny dinobot giving a contented squawk in response.

Blades' brows furrowed, "Did you-"

" _Yes_! Primus, Blades...!"  
Heatwave patted Snowblast's helm once more, "I'll tell you though, I was worried he'd be another Blurr when he hatched."

"Now _I'm_ insulted!" Blurr complained, "I'm not _that_ annoying!... Am I?"

"...Do you want to hear what you _think_ you want to hear?" Salvage responded, "Or do you want to hear what you _should_ hear, which I'll tell you, and not just what you _think_ you want to hear?"

"...Run that by me again?"

"You're a pain in the actuator sometimes." Heatwave informed, earning a pout from Blurr. "Hey, the truth hurts."

"But we like you anyway." Boulder assured, "Cuz Heatwave is annoying too."

"Excuse me!?"

Blades grinned, "Snowy's a bit annoying when he cries at night, but he's usually pretty well-behaved..."

A loud beeping came from the video game and Cody gave a hard sigh of relief as his fingers were finally able to rest. "Phew...No more for me."

"But you won," Dani responded, holding out a hand for a high-five. Cody returned it and then got up from the couch, stretching a little.

Blades placed his son back down on the floor as he started to squirm, and the sparkling ran over to Cody, squawking and flapping his wings excitedly.  
Cody giggled, reaching up and stroking the little bot's neck. "...He's gonna outgrow all of us soon."

"They grow up so fast..." Dani murmured.

"Now you kids know how _I_ feel every time I see you..." Chief placed an arm around Cody, "I mean, my youngest is about to graduate High School, two of my kids are either married or engaged...I feel so old."

"Not to mention you have an alien grandchild, Dad." Kade teased, "And who knows? You might have _two_ kids engaged in a few months..."

Cody punched his oldest brother in the shoulder. "Like I'd do that the second me and Frankie are out of school."

"But you plan on doing it eventually though, _right_...?"

"If I did, what's it to you?"

"Aww..." Dani cooed. "My wittle bwother's all gwown up!"

"The longer we interact with you Burnses, the more we're glad we don't have siblings." Heatwave informed.

"Not biologically, but I'm sure Snowy thinks of you guys as uncles," Cody replied.

Blades picked Snowy back up, nuzzling noses with him. "It's too bad Snowy doesn't have any other little bots to play with."

Heatwave sighed, taking a sip of his energon. "Well...In a few weeks, he _will_."

He turned as Chase spewed energon across the bunker.

"Chase, are you alright!?" Boulder worried as his teammate coughed and wheezed.

"F-Fine!" Chase assured, coughing a few times before looking up at Heatwave. "He'll _what_...!? Heatwave-"

"Nice spit take, Chase."

Blurr's hands clenched into fists, "Slag you, Heatwave! You don't just _announce_ things like that!"

" _Language_ , Blurr!" Blades scolded, covering Snowblast's audio receptors. "There are small audio receptors present...!"

"Sorry, Blades...!"

"But on another note..." Blades looked at Salvage, " _CALLED IT!_ "

"Looks like you were in denial back there, partner..." Kade informed.

"Believe me, Kade, I was doing everything I could to avoid it."   
He then suddenly grimaced, holding his torso as he stumbled back a few steps. The whirring of his engine was now accompanied by a loud whine.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Boulder caught his teammate, helping him sit down. "Why don't you just sit down..."

"It's just a twinge, is all..." Heatwave assured, "...I can handle it."

"Uh...I think today's fainting fiasco proves you can't 'handle it.'" Kade reminded.

"Kade raises a good point..." Chief murmured, "And if you go feral like Blades did, we can't be chasing you down too."

"Not to offend Blades, but Heatwave is less likely to flee a threat than he is." Chase reminded, "Also, Heatwave's dinobot mode is incapable of flight. It would be incredibly unlikely for him to leave the island should he in fact retreat."

"Good point." Boulder agreed.

There then came a chirp, and Chief Burns tapped his commlink. "Chief Burns, go ahead."

"Aaaand here it comes..." Blurr mumbled, "...Somebody decided they could see in the fog and paid for it."

Chief listened for a few moments. "We'll get right on it... Alright, Team, we've got a five-car pileup by the docks."

" _Five_...!?" Blades groaned. 

"Chase, Boulder, Blades, Salvage, let's get going."

The bots gave a combination of nods and eye rolls, and their partners moved to join them.

"Wait, what about me?" Blurr asked.

"We don't need a _six_ -car pileup, Blurr." Kade teased as he climbed into Chase with the Chief. "You like to...jump the gun."

"But-"

"Sit, boy." Heatwave informed, patting Blurr on the helm. "Stay."

Blades handed Snowblast to Heatwave, "Just keep an eye on him, okay?"

Heatwave nodded, though he didn't seem particularly happy about staying behind. The bots transformed into vehicle mode and their partners climbed in, and then they were gone.

"So...Who's up for charades?" Blurr suggested.

Heatwave rolled his eyes, grimacing as another painful twinge pulsed through his systems. "Snow and I will be in my quarters..." He muttered, wandering down the hall and leaving Blurr alone in the garage...

...Well, not completely alone. The racecar looked down at Servo, who looked back with a wagging tail.

"... _You_ up for charades?"


	3. Your 'Fine' and My 'Fine' Are Different

Heatwave didn't want to admit it, but he was in more pain than he was letting on. Every time he would almost get comfortable to rest, a spur of pain would shoot through him, making his joints and insides tense up. More than a few times he almost cried out, but he kept silent. He wasn't going to let his team know how much he was struggling.  
Snowblast seemed to sense his pain however and would nuzzle his neck with sad squeaks whenever his uncle would stiffen up from the pain. He didn't know how to help, but he was doing his best. When everyone had returned and Blades took the little bot back, he'd waved at Heatwave over his father's shoulder, as if to say 'hang in there.'

By the dawn, every one of Heatwave joints ached and he didn't feel like getting up or moving. He felt worse than when he'd refocused his energy to scan another form, or when they'd worked day after day building that ridiculous train tunnel, but he forced himself to sit up on the berth. He was the leader, he couldn't let some pain keep him from his job. His entire chassis creaked loudly, his joints hissing and popping as he stood up; Primus, he hurt.

It was later than he'd realized. When he entered the main portion of the bunker, everyone was already up and moving. "Morning..." He greeted, grimacing upon hearing how tired he sounded.

"Good morning, Heatwave." Blades greeted, "How're you feeling?"

"Fine." Heatwave lied, looking down at Snowblast as the sparkling gave a peep out from under a towel. "You get a bath, Snowy?"

"I was wanting to make sure it wasn't _him_ stinking up the bunker."

Heatwave raised an eyebrow, taking a whiff of the air. There _was_ an odd scent floating about; not a bad or particularly powerful scent, but he couldn't identify it or its source. "...Yeah, what _is_ that?"

Boulder shrugged, "Chase and I don't smell anything unusual. It's just you and Blades, I guess."

Blades scooped up his son into his arms, rubbing the tiny bot's helm with the towel and earning a purr in response. "You missed the series finale."

"Trust me, it wasn't that _good_...!" Blurr hissed, yelping as Blades tossed the towel at his faceplate. "Hey!"

"How can you say it wasn't good!? I had no _idea_ that twist would come at the end!"

" _I'm_ still trying to wrap my processor around it." Salvage admitted, "I mean, I know human customs are still foreign to me, but how could Geraldo's sister actually be his half-brother's cousin's nephew's daughter?"

Heatwave was quiet for a moment, and then shook his helm; why was he even trying to work that sentence out in his helm? "I don't have the energy to think about that either... What's on today's agenda?"

" _You_ are taking it easy."  
Chief Burns stepped out of the elevator into the bunker, "Until we can determine the extent of how your carrying will affect you, it's just too risky to send you out into the field."

"But Chief, it was just a little dizzy spell. I'm perfectly..."  
He paused as another jolt hit him, his helm began to spin; he had to catch himself on the wall and refused Boulder's help when the bulldozer started towards him. Within a moment, the surge of vertigo was gone, though the pain took longer to fade.

"This is exactly what I mean... Trust me, Heatwave. You need to rest and not strain yourself until the carrying is over."

Heatwave growled softly, stumbling over to the couch to take a seat. "...I hate feeling useless," he muttered as he crossed his arms, "I'm not doing my job as a leader if I'm just sitting here."

"Everybody has times when they need to step back and take care of themselves first, Heatwave. You'll be back in the field soon, just like Blades is."

"But what if you need me? We have more fires around town than anything _else_!"

The Burnses all groaned in agreement, but Chief's tone was consistent. "As true as that is, Kade _does_ have his old truck. It'll do until you're back to running on all cylinders."

Heatwave sighed, leaning his helm back against the wall. "...Fine."

"Good. Holler if you need help with anything, and I _mean_ that."

Heatwave grumbled something under his breath, but Chief seemed assured enough to leave the pouting firetruck alone.  
"Sure... I'll just sit here and do nothing today..."  
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Doing nothing didn't last long.

Heatwave was only sitting there a few minutes before getting antsy. While the rest of the bots went upstairs to run patrol, he found himself pacing back and forth, muttering things to himself. He caught himself pausing in front of the door to the tunnels every time, looking at it before continuing. He had this weird urge to go into the tunnels for some reason, and that smell; that weird smell wouldn't go away no matter where he went.

"What!?" He hollered into the dark passage as soon as the door was open. "What do you want from me!?"  
Only his own voice replied, but he stepped into the tunnel and wandered a little way into it, keeping the door back into the bunker within sight. He listened, perhaps something else was down here that needed his help? But the only sound was his own movement, and the humming of sounds in the bunker echoing off the walls.   
"Dirt. That's all that's down here." He told himself, "Brown, soft... _Malleable_ dirt."

He hadn't noticed it before, but his peds had been digging into the dirt as he stood there, forming little indents in the floor. The flooding lately had softened it, making it only easier to dig into it.  
His processor went back to the nest Blades had built during his own carrying. He'd mentioned just having an urge to build it, without any knowledge of why he would need it at the time, an instinct taking over his primary actions. But Heatwave didn't want to weave a nest out of scrap metal... He wanted to dig. He wanted to dig _a lot_.

"Scrap, I'm turning into Boulder... Or maybe Servo." He muttered as he shuffled his foot back and forth in the dirt. The edges of his peds shifted slightly, like the Burnses' feet would knead into the sand of Blossom Vale's beaches, to dig deeper. He looked back at the door, then at the dirt. "There's nobody else down here... And if it'll make this itch go away...!"

He bent down onto his hands and knees, and dug his hands into the dirt, pulling it back and smoothing out the sides as he went. This was stupid, completely stupid, and juvenile in nature, so why did it make him feel so much calmer? The cool, smooth soil wasn't sticky mud, so he didn't get himself too dirty as he formed a shallow pit, just little patches where it settled into small nicks and scrapes in his armor. He never dug too deep, just enough that when he was finished, he could lay down in the pit, and he did so, staring up at the ceiling of the tunnel.  
The dirt was cool against his metal, and the tunnel was quiet, a nice break from the non-stop rescue work they'd been doing.

And that was another thing. He'd been pushing himself a lot lately, which they'd thought would prevent the carrying programming from activating. Was it false? Was the occupation and lifestyle of the parent not a factor?  
Another sharp twinge pulsed through him, and he realized he was settled still on all fours. He growled softly, pulling himself out of the position and rolling over onto his back, arms outstretched as he looked up at the ceiling of the tunnel. "Ugh...What am I doing...?" He mumbled.

" _You_ tell _me_."

Heatwave jumped, sitting up and turning around to see Cody standing on the edge of the hole. "Cody...What're you doing down here?"

"Looking for _you_... What're _you_ doing in here?"

Heatwave groaned, laying back down and folding his hands together across his chest. "Nesting, _apparently_...I don't even know...Did you need me?"

"I was just coming to check on you...You okay?"

Heatwave was silent for a moment, and then sighed. "No... I'm a disgrace. My mentors on Cybertron would be appalled to see me like this."

"You can't help it, Heatwave."

"Well, I should be able to!" The firetruck's optics glared back up at the human, even though his anger was not with him. "I'm the leader of this team, I'm supposed to be setting a good-"  
He was cut off by a particularly strong jolt of pain, and a soft, pitiful whine escaped his clenched teeth. "...Example...!" He finished with a hiss.

Cody slid down the slope into the hole, taking a seat beside the firetruck. "...Mayor Luskey passed that law my Dad suggested." He informed, obviously trying to change the subject away from Heatwave feeling ashamed of himself.

"The Autobot Protection Law?"

"Uh-huh. We now have a law that states 'Any human convicted of harming or endangering the lives of a cybertronian on Griffin Rock soil or in its waters will be charged and spend jail time.'"

Heatwave gave a slight smirk, "...That won't stop some people from trying."

"Maybe, but since like, _every_ enemy we've had all came after Snowblast and were arrested, it means that there won't be any of them here to attack us for a while."

"Right..." Heatwave grimaced as another pulse of pain surged through him.

"I'm sorry you're in pain."

"It's fine... I'll just be glad when it's over." The firetruck was quiet for a moment, "...Of course, then I'll have a tiny bot to keep an optic on."

"It'll be okay. Everybody will help out, just like you help out with Snowblast."

"I suppose... If they wind up being as stubborn as me, though..."

Cody grinned, patting Heatwave's shoulder. "You'll be fine... You want me to keep quiet about your little hiding hole here?"

"For now... I mean, it's not like anybody's gonna come down here."  
He finally sat up and collected Cody up into his hand. "Come on, we'd better get back inside before they all wonder where you are too..."


	4. Best Bot?

It was a couple of days, but even Heatwave knew it couldn't be avoided. One night, the other bots had been disturbed by a loud crash from Heatwave's quarters, and when they went to check on him, they found it was because he'd uncontrollably transformed into dinobot mode and fallen from his berth. He laid on the floor, his tarp blanket drooped over his helm and rage in his optics. He hated this, every second of it.

Just the same, he did his best to be helpful. The dizzy spells were less frequent now, and Chief allowed him to leave the Firehouse but under the watchful eye of his teammates. He assisted around town and the Firehouse where he could but keeping an eye on Snowblast whenever the rest of the team was called out for an emergency and he was confined to the house.

Today, they were assisting in the decorating for an event the Mayor was hosting. It was a cooler morning, so Snowblast was content to be outside with them, dangling from his father's neck as Blades held a flag banner in place for Dani to secure.

Heatwave held his ladder tail up for Kade to hammer in the other side of the banner, another banner dangling from his teeth and awaiting its turn to be set up.

"You doing okay, Partner?" Kade asked.

"I'm fine. I'd rather get this done ourselves than have someone else fall off a ladder and then we have to pull them out of a tree."

"Touche."

"Remind me what these decorations are for...?" Blades whispered.

Dani sighed, "It's the Mayor's twelfth anniversary of being in office..." She muttered.

"We're not counting that break he took when Chase was in charge?" Boulder asked as he paused in his stage assembly, "Or when they thought your family was royalty?"

"Nnnnnope."  
Dani hammered the last nail into the post and then turned to look behind her, "How's it looking from back there, Blurr?"

The race car held out his hands in a square shape, "Eh...Hmm...Maybe? Nah-"

"Blurr!" Heatwave snarled, his neck craning to fire a piercing glare at the other bot. "Is it straight or _not_!?"

Blurr blinked, "...Straight."

"Thank you."

Kade patted Heatwave's neck gently, "Hey, take it easy, Grumpy-Pistons."

The firetruck was silent for a moment and then sighed, "Sorry. I just...don't have the energy to deal with fooling around today."

"So what I'm hearing is that we should put up this last banner and then go home so you can rest."

"I told you, I'm fine...And wouldn't you rather be working on wedding stuff with Hayley?"

It was beyond Heatwave's understanding how Kade had managed to convince his long-time girlfriend and even longer-time crush to tie the knot. He hadn't been there when the question was asked because Kade had insisted on doing it himself in private. The fireman took his old truck out and was gone for several hours, but when he returned, he was radiating excitement. Plenty of teasing from his siblings, congratulations from his father and the bots; that night was a good night.

Kade grimaced at the question his partner had asked, "Yeah, about that... Hayley doesn't want me to do anything with the planning and scheduling stuff. Her exact words were... _'You bring your handsome self to the ceremony and have your family make sure nothing blows up.'_ "

"Which if the ceremony was happening anywhere else on the planet, wouldn't be too hard." Graham expressed, "But...This _is_ Griffin Rock, and no event ever goes according to plan."

"Shh! Don't jinx it...!"

Kade climbed down from Heatwave's neck to his back, allowing his partner to move down the treeline to the next post. "But there is something I wanted to ask you, Heatwave."

"If you're going to ask me if you can write ' _just married_ ' on my front window, the answer is no."

"No, not that...I need a Best Man."  
The fireman nearly tumbled off of his partner's back as Heatwave came to an abrupt halt. "C-Careful!" He hollered, grasping tightly to one of Heatwave's water cannons for stability.

"S-Sorry. I just..." Heatwave turned his helm to where Kade was within his periphery, "...You want _me_ to be your best man?"

"Well...Yeah! I mean, you're my partner and we spend more time together than I do anyone else on the island. You know, besides my family and Hayley... And Cody and Graham are both already gonna be groomsmen."

"This is what you get for having so few actual friends..." Blades murmured, and was promptly thwacked by one of the banners by Dani.

Heatwave was quiet for a moment, "...I'll need to think about it."

"That's fine! I mean, the wedding's still a couple months away, so we have time, I just wanted to ask now."  
Kade tapped the ladder to alert Heatwave to lift it, "And since it'll be in a few months, you won't be dealing with your carrying by then..."

" _Hopefully_... Just a sparkling."  
Heatwave's helm perked up as he heard voices, and both he and Kade looked over to where Chief Burns was having a conversation with Mayor Luskey. "What's going on over _there_?"

"Dunno...Sounds like Dad's kind miffed at the Mayor, though."  
Indeed, the Chief sounded very perturbed with the elected official, his stance reflecting it even more. He kept pointing back towards them, and at one point even looked directly at Heatwave. Chase stood between the two groups, and Heatwave could feel the discomfort and slight irritation within the policebot's EM field.  
Kade shrugged, "He probably suggested some big fireworks display that'll be a fire hazard."

"Knowing Luskey...Probably. Or have the entire event televised to the Mainland."

The conversation went for a few more minutes, and then the two men split ways, Chief marching back towards the bots.

"Everything okay, Dad?" Dani asked.

Chief sighed as he shook his head, "Let's just say... Crisis averted. Let's get this finished up and then head home..."  
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Ow ow ow...! _Careful_ , Blades...!"

"I'm sorry, Heatwave. I'm being as gentle as I can." Blades assured.

"It would be gentler if you weren't doing it _at all_."  
The firebot grimaced once more, and Blades pushed back his leg that instinctively tried to curl up and block the medic off as he very carefully felt his partner's underside with one hand, a scanner in the other. The medic had told him that he'd seen something suspicious while Heatwave was walking around town and wanted to make sure nothing was abnormal, but how did _he_ know what was _normal_ for a brachiosaurus dinobot carrying? _Nobody_ knew what was normal for that!

"Your plating's density is altered." Blades murmured, running the scanner from front to back and then side to side, adding very gentle pressure to his teammate's plating. "It's shifting back to a protomatic form."

"Ow ow ow...!" Heatwave hissed as Blades pushed a little harder, "Ow! Primus, Blades...!"

"You mean his armor is de-aging?" Blurr asked, bending down to look the medic in the optic. "Why?"

"Protomatter is more pliable." Blades informed, "I think it's shifting to a softer form to allow it to stretch."

"But _your_ plating didn't stretch." Heatwave bent his head down, looking between his front legs to face Blades. "Why would mine?"

"Snowy was smaller and inside of an energon-forged egg structure." Blades gave the firebot a nervous shrug, "Your sparkling's not showing any signs of being laid as an egg."

"In other words..."  
They all looked as Cody entered the room, "We need to be prepared for a ' _live_ ' birth."

"Cody."  
Heatwave bent down to the human, "What was up with Chief and Mayor Luskey earlier? I know something is up."

" _Was_ up, Heatwave." Cody patted Heatwave's nose, "Dad got it worked out."

"Essentially, Mayor Luskey had yet another idea for publicity," Chase interjected. He was silent for several more seconds, tapping his pointer fingers together and avoiding optic contact. "...By capturing your carrying on film."

"He wanted to _what_!?"  
Heatwave gave a hard huff as he stamped a foot down, nearly stomping on Blades' arm if he hadn't moved it. "Over my dead spark!"

"Watch it!" Blades complained.

"That is essentially what Chief Burns said..." Chase muttered, "You deserve as much privacy as any other sentient being at such a crucial moment."

"Filming me while I'm carrying...Do I look like that giraffe from a few years ago? Don't answer that."

Cody patted Heatwave's leg, "The good news is Dad rejected the idea and told him off. You don't have to worry about that anymore..."

"Right... Now I just have two problems: My carrying, and Kade asking me to be his best man."

"He asked _you_?" Blurr questioned, "Why?"

"That's the exact same question I'm asking... I don't think it's a good idea."

"Why not?" Cody asked.

"The Best Man's job is to hold the rings for them, but those things are small even for you humans! What if I lose them?"

"We could minimize you so that you're smaller." Blades suggested.

"And what if something catches fire, which is _likely,_ , given our current location? I'd have to go get the minimizer, grow back to my full size, and then go to help. That would take forever!"

"Then be two places at once..."  
The bots and Cody all turned to Quickshadow as she spoke, they hadn't noticed her enter. "You can project yourself for the wedding, and if an emergency pops up, then you can immediately go back to bot form to get to work." 

"Projecting?" Cody questioned. 

Quickshadow closed her optics, and then out of nowhere a young woman with curly blonde hair and a pencil skirt appeared. "Like so." The woman responded in Quickshadow's voice, giving a quick spin before looking at the other bots. "Have any of you ever actually _used_ your holoforms before?" 

"Well... Not exactly." Boulder admitted, "We've never needed to." 

"I could have used mine when I went to the mainland for the Teen Pioneer ceremony I guess..." Blades murmured, "...But I forgot about it, and then when I saw all the effort Graham put into that holoprojector for me-" 

Cody shrugged, "It worked out in the end..." 

Quickshadow's human form disappeared and she opened her optics again, "Just forge a holoform to stand in your place during the wedding; if something happens, then you can snap back into bot mode immediately." 

The slightest smirk formed on the firebot's lips, "Hmm...That just might work." 

"Having one on hand would be a suitable idea for _all_ of us." Chase informed, "If we should become separated from our partners at any given time, we have a driver to cover for them." 

"Sounds like a plan to me." Cody agreed with a grin, "I'd better head upstairs for dinner. I'll see you all later." 

"Bye Cody..."  
Heatwave watched the teenager disappear into the elevator, and then started to limp down the hall. "I'll be in my room..." 

"Alright...Goodnight." Blades murmured. 

Heatwave wandered into his quarters, settling down on the floor and resting his helm down on the cool concrete. With his components being slowly squished by the increasing protomatter collecting and putting pressure on him, he was always in at least some pain, and in this form, getting onto the bed was not an option.  
Blades' words, the thought of his chassis having to be distended like the organic beings of this planet, it bothered him more than he wanted to share. How much stretching was it going to be? The digging was bad enough, but if it changed his appearance much beyond the norm, he didn't think he'd be able to show his faceplate to even his own teammates! 

He laid on the floor, looking blankly at the door, his systems slowly winding down for sleep mode. But then, just as he was about to slump completely, he felt something. His optics opened wider, and he held very still. Had he just imagined-  
He stifled a gasp and clenched his teeth together as the pressure shifted downward a little, and it felt like a wrench was shoved into his energon processor. He wanted to cry out, to attack whatever was hurting him, but he couldn't...because it wasn't something he could touch, not yet. The buildup of protomatter inside of him suddenly had life, it was moving on its own, even if it wasn't aware of it. No, it wasn't just protomatter...His _child_ was alive. _I have to change my thought processes about this..._ He thought, _It's not just a hinderance...it's not there to hurt me intentionally...I'm okay with it-Oof!_  
Another firm shove into his energon processor shook his chassis, and he gave a hard cough to rid himself of the need to cry out. He had to be strong, he couldn't cry. 

"Little troublemaker already...!" He hissed, his brows furrowing with irritation. 

He felt the sparkling move a little, a foot or maybe their helm brushing against his metal. They settled down after a few minutes, and Heatwave finally closed his optics and allowed himself to fall into sleep mode.  
_____________________________________________________________________________________________ 

The next morning, Heatwave didn't wake up when he usually did. The rest of the bots were up and moving, but even as noon began to creep closer, the firebot still hadn't emerged from his room. Chase and Blades eventually headed out with their partners to patrol the island, and Quickshadow left the island entirely, saying she had something she needed to take of on the mainland, but she'd be back in a few days. High Tide was rarely off of his ship off the coast, always scanning the sea for intruders and only coming inland for supplies. 

This left Boulder, Blurr and Salvage alone in the Firehouse, occupied by their own interests. Boulder was reading a book, while Blurr and Salvage had started a ring-toss tournament with scrap that Salvage had collected. 

"What do you think Heatwave's doing in there?" Blurr murmured. 

Boulder shrugged, "He did seem rather tired last night... Why don't you go check on him?" 

Blurr grumbled, but didn't disregard the bulldozer's suggestion. He wandered down the hall, and for several moments the remaining two resumed their tasks, before Blurr came rushing back down the hall. 

"He's gone!" 


	5. Flood Warning

"What do you mean, he's gone?"  
Boulder placed his book back on the shelf, never taking his optics off of the racecar.

"I mean he's not in his room, and he's not down here. He couldn't have gotten upstairs without us noticing... _Right?_ "

The three bots were all up the elevator in an instant, searching the garage for their teammate, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"You don't think he left the island, do you?" Salvage asked.

"If he did, High Tide would-"

**Boulder, come in!**  
Dani's voice came ringing through the comm unit. **Get over to Walnut and Sixth. A sinkhole opened up and Chase fell in!**

"Understood." Boulder informed as Graham came sliding down the pole to join him. "Blurr, come with me. Salvage, stay here in case Heatwave comes back and contact High Tide to ask him if he's seen anything."

"Yes sir!" Salvage replied with a salute, and then Boulder and Blurr transformed into vehicle mode.

"Heatwave's missing _too_?" Graham worried.

"It's a long story. Let's make sure Chase is alright first..."  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

_Chase? Chase, come on, wake up...!_

Chase could hear his partner's voice speaking to him, but it was distant and murky. He struggled to find it, while also trying to remember what had just transpired. His processor slowly pieced it together; they'd been driving down the street when it had suddenly broken open and they'd both plummeted into the darkness. He must've hit something other than the dirt underneath because his helm was pounding like a drum.

The waking world snapped back into focus in a flash, and he gave a gasp as his optics opened and stared out into the darkness.

"Whoa! Easy Chase, easy..."

"Ch-Chief..." Chase rasped, his optics searching the murky brown haze around him, and bubbles occasionally floating into his view told him he was at least partially submerged in dirty water. Low rumbles and moaning came from all around as his surroundings shifted, ripples through the water alerting him to falling debris splashing down from above. "A-Are you harmed?"

"Some bruises from the seatbelt digging into my shoulders, but otherwise fine... What about _you_? You were out for a minute."

Chase shifted again, his chassis creaking under the water. Primus, his helm hurt. "... _Minor_ damage."  
He tried to get his legs up underneath him but found something heavy and stiff holding his legs to the floor up to his mid-thigh, and to try to move only dug the sharp points into his armor. "...But I'm afraid my legs are pinned under debris, and my current position prevents me from digging myself out."

"Don't worry, we'll think of something..."  
Chief looked up as light appeared from above the water, and Chase struggled, pushing up on his hands into the mud and finally getting his helm above the water.

"CHASE!" Blades hollered from above, and Chase spat water from his mouth before making out the crack in the ground they'd fallen through above them. It seemed to be moving back and forth, or was that his optics malfunctioning? "Are you alright!?"

"Not exactly..." Chase admitted through the comms. "My...My legs are pinned, I cannot get free on my own."

**Don't worry, we'll get you out.** Blades informed, **Boulder, hurry. We need to widen the opening.**

**No. Too risky.** Graham argued, **If we try to make the hole larger, then we run the risk of caving the roof in on top of them even further.**

**Well, we can't just leave them there!**

Chase sighed, trying to think of another solution but coming up with none. "...Blades, send your tow line down into the tunnel and take Chief Burns back up to the surface."

Chief placed a hand on the monitor, his eyebrows furrowing. "Chase, I'm not leaving you down here all by yourself. You're clearly not unharmed like you say, I can hear it in your voice."

"The water is only getting deeper as it fills up this part of the tunnel, and my cab will run out of oxygen eventually. I do not require oxygen and can remain here until a solution is found, which I believe will be swift... _Please_."

Chief sighed, and then unstrapped his seatbelt. "I don't like this..."

"Nor do I, sir. But your safety is more important than my comfort."

"...Stay safe."

"Of course, sir."  
Chief gasped as Chase's windshield opened and the chilly water came rushing in. He was knocked back against the wall of the cab, but then swam out and up towards the light. He gasped as his head broke the surface, looking at his partner's helm trying to stay above the surface to keep an eye on him.

"Lowering the winch!" Blades hollered, and after a few seconds, the hook came splashing down into the water. 

Chief swam over to it and grabbing tightly to the rope. "We'll be back for you, Chase!" He assured as he tugged on the line, and then the winch began to lift up once more.

Chase gave him a nod, before the water swallowed his helm once more and the rescue bot was completely submerged. The police bot's helm was beginning to spin even more, and he allowed himself to lay it back down on the bottom, closing his optics to rest for just a few cycles.

Chief clung to the rope as it pulled him closer and closer to the light, and winced as he finally broke free into the freedom of the surface.

"Dad!" Graham helped Chief away from the crack, "Are you okay?"

"Fine, son... Let's just get to work finding a way to get _Chase_ out of there." Chief grabbed the hem of his shirt and wrung out some of the dirty water.

"Not to mention we still need to find Heatwave." Boulder informed. "We checked his room and he was gone."

Chief rolled his eyes, "Of course he is..."

**Did you check the bunker tunnels?** Cody asked through the comms. **He's been spending a lot of time down there.**

**Not yet.** Salvage informed, **Snowy and I will take a look.**

"Be careful," Chief informed, "The tunnels may _all_ be at jeopardy of collapsing..."  
________________________________________________________________________________________-

Heatwave was well aware of the tunnels lack of structural integrity; what he wasn't aware of was how in Primus' name he wound up this deep into the tunnels. He'd been in his quarters, trying to go back to sleep while the sparkling twitched, and then there was a space in his memory. It jumped to only a few minutes ago, when he opened his optics and found he was no longer anywhere near the Firehouse. He was actually closer to Mount Magma than the house.  
He may not remember how he wound up down there, but he was here, and something was pulling him deeper into them... An odd smell.

It wasn't the smell he and Blades had picked up the other day; _that_ smell had been identified as Heatwave himself. The firebot had scrubbed himself down helm to heel strut, but it still persisted, so since he and Blades were the only ones whose olfactory sensors were picking it up, he just left it alone.  
No, this smell was different, and he wasn't going to stop until he'd determined its origin and made sure it wasn't harmful to humans, like a gas leak. He didn't know why, but something deep within his processor, his spark, told him that it meant trouble.

As the tunnel dipped downward, he found himself stepping into water that was steadily getting deeper. His feet squished into the mud, but never more than a few inches as he trudged through. The smell was getting stronger, which meant he was getting closer.

**Heatwave, do you copy?**

Salvage's voice crackled with static as he tried to contact the firebot, and Heatwave paused for a moment to answer. "I'm here, Salvage. What is it?"

**Where are you? We couldn't find you at the Firehouse, so-**

"I...I'm on a mission. Something smells down here and I'm going to make sure it's not hazardous."  
He couldn't exactly tell them that sleepwalking was another new symptom of his condition, they'd never let him leave his quarters!

**Since when do you bother investigating _bad smells_?**

"Salvage."

**Sorry... Just be careful, alright? You don't want to get trapped like Chase is.**

The firebot paused, "Chase is trapped somewhere?"

**One of the tunnels collapsed and he-**

"I'm going to help him. I'll keep you posted."

**But Heatwave, Chief Burns told you not to-**

Heatwave blocked out the rest of the transmission; he'd deal with the Chief's wrath later. He placed the uncovering of the scent's source in the back of his processor for now, focusing on finding his teammate. The murky water continued to increase in depth, until it was splashing up against his underside, his neck stretched forward and head held low as he searched the walls of the tunnel for clues.

The sparkling evidently did not like the cold of the water seeping through his plating, squirming and making the Firebot wince as they pushed on other parts of him in an effort to get away from the cold. "Just a little rescue op, nothing to worry about." Heatwave assured, "Chase!?" He called, but got no answer yet.

He shuffled his feet along the bottom, beginning to feel other debris than just the muddy floor of the passage. He followed the debris path until his lights lit up a large obstruction in front of him. Rocks, wood, mud and asphalt formed the pile, and water was spraying out through the cracks, implying that once removed, a flood of water would come rushing into this side of the cavern as well.

Just the same, it would need to be moved in order to continue, and that odd smell was conveniently stronger in the direction he was going. Was the smell due to the collapse? A simple mixture of the various substances mixing together in the water? He needed to get to the other side, to know for certain.

Heatwave started at the top, tugging pieces of rock and asphalt out of the way and tossing them aside. As he removed the debris piece by piece, others were knocked loose by the water pushing its way through. His feet tugged boulders free from the edges of the bottom, and slowly but surely the obstruction began to be washed back Heatwave's direction. Heatwave stood fast as he felt it brush past his legs and the trickles of water became streams.

After a few minutes, he stepped aside, watching as nature took over the cleaning up and large chunks of the wall disappeared back the direction he'd come and then being sucked down a neighboring tunnel that sloped downward. It then shuddered, and as the water on the other side receded, Heatwave saw a familiar helm break free of the water. "Chase!"

Chase coughed up water, his faceplate barely above the water now. "H-Heatwave? What're you doing down here...? Chief Burns gave you explicit instructions not to-"

"Not to leave the Firehouse unless it was a true emergency. I know." Heatwave muttered, "This is an emergency."   
He walked over and kicked more debris off of his teammate until Chase was finally able to break free and was washed backward. Heatwave held out his tail, letting Chase hold onto it until the police-bot got his feet underneath him. "Are you hurt?"

Chase leaned forward a little to dump some water out of his open cab. "Just my pride...And perhaps my helm." He muttered, putting a hand to his helm. "Leaning forward no longer seems like a wise decision...!"

Heatwave smirked, turning back towards the way he'd come. "Come on, let's get you back to the Firehouse so Blades can take a look at you."

**Heatwave, you stubborn bot.**  
It was Boulder this time, his voice almost scolding.

"I've got Chase, Boulder." Heatwave informed, "I'll escort him back to the firehouse."

**Chief's gonna be on you like a scraplet on a corpse, you know that right?**

"I'm aware... Heatwave out."   
The pair wandered a little ways back the way Heatwave had come, and the firebot noticed that the scent wasn't getting any less potent. He then paused a moment, sniffing the air before turning towards his downed comrade. "...It's _you_."

Chase winced as he looked up at his leader, " _What_ is me?"

"Nothing, Chase... Nothing at all."


	6. The Wanderer

"I'm starting to think that the Carrying is making you even _more_ stubborn..." Chief muttered, "What were you _thinking_...!?"

Heatwave shrugged, "I dunno." He admitted, "...I just...Did it."

"I saw that... I might just have High Tide stay here to keep an eye on you from now on." Chief Burns glared at the firetruck for several moments, and then relaxed with a hard sigh. "...But since you rescued Chase, I'm going to let this one time slide."

Heatwave looked to Chase as he laid on the medical table, Blades running a scanner over him. The police bot had passed out again a few minutes after Heatwave had gotten him back to the Firehouse, and while Blades had determined the cause was repairable, it was going to take a day or two of healing stasis and he wanted to check for other hidden damage.

"That _was_ rather reckless," Boulder agreed as he patted the leader's shoulder, "but I'd expect nothing less from you. You've been that way as long as we've known you."

"I remember that day..." Blades murmured with reminisence, "...He nearly ran me over coming into class late."

"And the professor told me that if I was going to make being late a habit, to just hang up my training badge." Heatwave added, "I was never late again. Even showed up early most sessions."

"So _that's_ where you get your impatience..." Kade teased, getting a glare from his partner. "Hey, _I'm_ guilty of it too."

Dani let out a huge gasp, grabbing her older brother's arm. "You admit to it? Who are you and what have you done with my brother!? Has Hayley infected you!?"

"I think it's the other way around, or else she wouldn't be _marrying_ him." Blurr mocked, getting a playful whack in the helm by Salvage. "Ouch."

"Ooh! Speaking of marriage, I got started working on a holoform for it." Boulder announced. "I'd show you, but the clothing part is still a work in progress."

"Me too!" Blurr informed, "I can't decide between a typical racer's uniform or something more casual."

"I don't think it matters," Heatwave narrowed his optics with a grin, "Yours is gonna look weird either way...!"

"Ah! _That hurts_!"

Kade shook his head, "I...Think I _missed_ something. Holoforms?"

"We'll explain later, Kade." Graham promised, "Right now we need to discuss what we're gonna do about your... digging problem."

Heatwave looked at Cody, who waved his arms and shook his head. "...You know about that?"

"Uh...Yeah." Salvage smirked as he looked at his best friend, "Blurr came back to the house to look for you and we were checking the tunnels. One second Blurr is next to me, the next-" He made a falling motion with his arms, "-he's a good six feet or so shorter and face-down in the dirt."

"Oh, well _that's_ not bad."

"Not bad!?" Blurr started, but was stopped by Salvage putting a hand over his mouth.

Heatwave sighed, "Fine. So I've been digging. What's the problem?"

"Um, how about the fact that the tunnels are flooding with rainwater and you keep going out there to dig pits, probably to give birth in? That _can't_ be a good mix."

Heatwave sighed, "I guess we should consider that..."

"Sandbox."

The family turned to Cody as he spoke up from where he'd been doodling on a notepad. "What?" Kade questioned.

Cody held up an image of a large rectangle. "We build a giant sandbox and then put it somewhere private, like maybe that garage under Doc Greene's lab, and then Heatwave has something to dig in that won't be flooded."

Graham and Boulder looked at one another and then back to the team as they spoke in unison. "Piece of cake."

Chief's eyebrows furrowed as he pointed a finger at Heatwave. "Heatwave, I do not want you leaving this Firehouse unless I give you specific permission until further notice, understood?"

Heatwave hesitated only a moment before nodding slowly. "Understood, Chief..."

"Good. Now that that's been solved..." Chief rubbed his neck, "...I'm going to call the Chiropractor. That fall did a number on my back, and I'm not as young as I once was..."

The humans all left the bots to head upstairs, and Blades placed a hand on the leader's shoulder. "...You don't know if you can keep that promise to the Chief, do you...?" He whispered.

Heatwave shook his head, "I...I really don't remember going down there. I just remember suddenly being there and making the best of it... It has me concerned if possibly entire hours of my memory banks is just gone."

"It'll be okay, Heatwave. And you know you can talk to us about anything."

"Yeah...I know..."

"Intellectually?"  
The firebot looked Boulder in the optic, the green bulldozer giving him a serious look. "Do you know intellectually, or do you really know it in your spark?"

Heatwave's helm drooped, he knew they were right. "I... I don't feel like myself." He admitted, "Angrier... More nervous... I need to be a strong leader. I can't let any of you down, not now."

"Nobody's disappointed in you- Well, maybe Chief-" Blades murmured, "But I went through the same thing too."

"But it's normal for _you_ to a nervous wreck!" The medic gave him a glare, "Sorry, it's just that I've grown used to the position of leader, I feel comfortable there...but a parent?"

"I'll bet Bumblebee felt the same way." Blades informed, "It's okay to feel vulnerable."

"Not for me."  
Heatwave turned and started down the hall, wandering into his quarters and closing the door. "Not for me..."  
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Heatwave didn't leave the Firehouse, just like the Chief had ordered; in fact, he hardly left his quarters. When he did, it was only for brief periods to refuel on energon and perhaps check on what had happened that day. Nobody mentioned how fatigued he looked, or how with each passing day, his chassis was beginning to warp outward. To the inhabitants, the difference wasn't enough for them to notice, but to the three who'd known and seen their teammate for centuries...  
The other bots all made the decision to assign Servo, rather than High Tide, with the task of watching him. If he left the firehouse for any reason, or if he acted like he was not in his intelligent state of mind, then the dogbot would alert them. Servo, being the smart little canine he was, made his spying on the firebot discrete. Nobody noticed how he'd park himself in the same room whenever Heatwave _did_ leave his quarters, not even Heatwave, it seemed. Dogs follow their owners around, it was just a fact.

Kade would never admit it, but he kinda _missed_ his partner. Heatwave seemed to deliberately avoid the firefighter whenever he emerged from his room, always when Kade was absent for a few minutes, and Kade would come back just in time to see his partner slink back into his room and disappear again. He wondered if it had something to do with what he'd asked Heatwave to do; did he not want to be Kade's best man and was afraid to say it?

Almost two weeks of this had gone on, and then one afternoon, while everyone else was out on patrol, Kade heard the loud barking from downstairs in the garage. He looked out the window, just in time to see Heatwave bolt out the open door. He rushed to the firepole, sliding down and his boots slamming down on the concrete floor. "Heatwave!"  
Kade ran out the door, looking down one end of the street, and then the other. His partner was nowhere in sight. "Scrap." He hissed under his breath.

He turned as he heard a horn honk, seeing Hayley roll up to the curb. "Hayley! Have you seen-"

"Your partner? Yeah, he was heading towards the park." Her eyebrows furrowed as she seemed to read the situation, "Get in."

"Thanks, Hot Stuff."  
Kade climbed into her passenger seat and they were off down the street. "Dad, Heatwave's just taken off from the Firehouse. Hayley and I are in pursuit."

**We'll keep an eye out for him. If you find him first, try to keep him stationary.** Chief Burns alerted. 

"Roger." Kade leaned back in his seat, "This is getting out of hand..."

Hayley raised an eyebrow, "Did you two get into a fight or something?"

Kade shook his head, "It's this... _'Carrying'_ stuff. Sometimes the programming takes over and they go into these... _states_. He starts going feral."

"Doesn't Blades know how to handle that? He's their medic, after all."

"Blades has about as much info as we do." Kade leaned against the door as Hayley turned a corner, slowly driving down the streets in search of clues. "He said the whole thing's an ancient thing that was only recently rediscovered, or something like that. Like, it happened a long time ago before they had good records of it and then it stopped until a few years ago."

"They just stopped being able to have children?" Hayley looked towards him, "Is that why there are so few of them left?"

Kade blinked; it hadn't occurred to him that he had never told his fiance _why_ the bots came to the island. She and the rest of the townsfolk had accepted their true nature fine, but how many people actually wondered why they were here in the first place? Hayley had been gracious enough not to ask too many questions, though. She trusted the bots even not knowing everything about them, unlike some of the other residents.  
"I don't know what caused them to stop." He murmured, "Anyways, we've been keeping an eye on Heatwave the past few days to make sure he didn't run off like Blades did a few months ago."

"I remember... But he got out just now."

"Yeah. And now he's wandering around the island with no idea he's doing it."  
He looked over as Hayley came to a stop by the curb by the park, looking around. "See anything...?"

"Hmm...Looks like he's headed uphill."  
Hayley turned down the street that led up towards the forested areas of the island. Once asphalt became the soft dirt, Heatwave's footsteps in it were easy to find. The trail winded up the foothills of Mount Magma, until finally it turned off the road and into the trees. 

Kade looked through the trees and could make out the bright red plating of his partner, he'd finally stopped. "There he is."  
They came to a stop and Kade climbed out of the car, slowly stepping through the treeline. In the clearing beyond was Heatwave, wandering around the perimeter very slowly, his head lowered towards the ground as if sniffing for something.

Hayley crept up to stand beside her fiance, "Any idea on what he's doing?"

"No idea..." Kade mumbled. They froze as Heatwave lifted his head and looked directly at them, would he bolt again? But after a moment of tense silence, the brachiosaur gave a huff of air and resumed his wandering around the clearing. "Looks like we're not interesting enough..."

"Let's go, then."   
Hayley took a few steps closer, keeping to the edge of the trees but slowly closing the distance between them and the robotic plant-eater. Kade followed, always keeping one eye on his fiance, and the other on his partner. Heatwave didn't seem to see them as anything more than other wildlife wandering the trees; perhaps he didn't see them _at all._

"Heatwave..." Kade spoke slowly, getting almost within reaching distance of his partner's massive metal leg. "...Hey, Buddy."  
The firebot didn't even twitch. Any other time, he would have gotten onto Kade about them 'not being buddies' and 'stop with the mushy stuff.' That was proof he wasn't in his right mind. "Heatwave...Hayley and I are gonna just come right here, okay? No need to worry, we're not going to hurt you..."

Heatwave gave him a brief glance and then lifted his head to the sky. He stared upward for a moment, and then a deep, almost sorrowful sound left his throat. Something between a whine and a roar, it echoed through the trees. Was he trying to call for other brachiosaurs? Was it a sound of pain?

"Oh Kade...Look at him...!"

Kade looked at where Hayley was looking, his gaze saddening. Heatwave when he was himself had barely let the firefighter anywhere near him, nowhere near enough to notice the long, deep stripes crossing his underside like scars. He'd heard Blades mention Heatwave's plating being stretched out by the carrying, but these marks were proof. Human skin was intended to stretch out during the reproduction process; metal plating, no matter how alien, was _not_. The plates had buckled and bulged out in odd places like it had been warped by heat, and every little adjustment Heatwave made to keep upright made terrible creaking noises from his leg joints.  
No wonder his partner had been in so much pain...

"Heatwave..." Kade whispered, and then he reached out and stroked the bot's leg. Heatwave shuddered and then he brought his head down, stretching his neck to look down at the firefighter. Kade was directly in his partner's gaze, and he wasn't sure if Heatwave was happy to see him or not. Heatwave stared at him, and then gave another huff of air that blew Kade's hair back.  
"You're in agony, aren't you?" Kade placed a hand on either side of the bot's muzzle, and Heatwave didn't even seem bothered. "I know you don't like people feeling sorry for you, but you gotta open up to somebody. Blades could help you if you would just be honest, you _know_ that... Right?"

Heatwave looked at him for another moment, and then his optics scrunched shut and Kade stepped back as the brachiosaur gave a moan of definite pain. His chassis creaked as he took a few steps to the side, before dropping into a lying position. Hard huffs of air left the bot's vents as he panted, and Kade was able to see as very slowly, his partner's underside was distended even further. But between the huffs of air, Kade could hear Heatwave's own voice in pained grunts, worse and worse until he finally gave a broken cry.

It was at this point that Kade heard the whirr of copter blades overhead, and the footsteps of other bots; the rest of the team had arrived.

Blades was transforming and rushing over to Heatwave's side as soon as he had landed in the soft grass. Heatwave looked at him and Kade saw the look of familiarity in his optics; the firebot was coming out of it. "Blades...!" He rasped, his chassis shaking.

"It's okay, I'm here." Blades assured, and from the container Blades had carried in with him, he pulled out a syringe. "I'm going to give you a mild sedative to reduce the pain, alright? But we need to get you back to the Firehouse as soon as possible."  
He injected the substance in the syringe into Heatwave's neck, and then after a few tense moments, the firebot began to relax a bit. "Scale of one to ten?"

"Ergh...!"  
Heatwave pulled himself up onto his feet, his teeth gritted together as he winced. The marks now stretched up onto the lower parts of his sides, and he took a few wobbly steps. "...I can make it...!"  
The firebot looked towards Kade for a moment, how much of what the man had said had Heatwave understood? Did he knew any of it? "...Let's go..."

"Just take it easy... That's it, slow steps..."

Kade watched Blades guide Heatwave back towards the road, and then took Hayley's hand. "Come on, Babe. We need to get back too."

Hayley shifted from holding his hand to his arm, "You think he'll be alright?"

Kade nodded, "Heatwave's a strong bot... He'll be fine."


	7. The Sea of Past Memory

Everyone escorted Heatwave back to the Firehouse, avoiding traffic and civilian-heavy streets until they reached the garage. Heatwave limped through the door and then dropped to the ground again, his teammates surrounding him. It had happened again, but this time, he woke up from his blind, feral wanderings in incredible pain.

One moment he was in his room, the next he was dropping to the ground in the woods, every inch of his chassis aching. Kade was there, and... And he was sure he remembered seeing Hayley, but he couldn't recall much. But he did recall the feeling, the pressure as the sparkling's mass increased all of a sudden. Like someone had hit fast-forward, what had been simple kicks were definite feet pressing into his metal, squeezing tighter against his organs. His plating was pushed out even further, and he could barely get enough air into his vents to keep cool.

He was even in too much pain to care when Blades began running a hand over his distended underside, the medic's optics deep in concentration. His processor was swirling, he couldn't think. Blades said something to Boulder, but he didn't catch it as he laid his helm down on the floor of the garage. The next thing he knew, he felt Blades inject something else into his systems, and he slumped into the darkness of stasis.  
_________________________________________________________________________

_Heatwave...? Heatwave..._  
Heatwave could hear a voice speaking to him, but he wasn't sure who it was. It sounded vaguely familiar, though... Like an old memory...

"You're gonna be late for training if you don't get up."  
Heatwave opened his optics finally, but it wasn't the garage he saw. He looked around, and then was met with a bright orange and yellow bot bending down to look him in the faceplate. "Hello? You still _functioning_?"

Heatwave sat up suddenly, his optics never leaving the mech who stood in front of him. "... _Arson_?"

The bot gave a cackle of a laugh as he stood up straight again, "What, you forgot that there was _another_ young, attractive firefighter trainee in this corridor? Come on, we don't have all solar cycle!"

Heatwave blinked and then rubbed his optics. He paused as he looked at his hands, like they were brand new. Wasn't he stuck in dinobot mode? Wait, was this... His old quarters at the academy?  
He stood up, looking at the set of bunks, the minimal box of belongings in the corner. It was all coming back to him now. But...how was he here?

Arson wasn't nearly as tall or broad in the shoulders as Heatwave, but he made up for it in having massive water tanks on either forearm. He was stretching by the door, his bright gold optics looking back at him. "You're actin' odd. You okay?"

"Y-Yeah." Heatwave shook his helm, "Just...stuck in a sleep vision, I guess."

"Well shake it off! We're going to be working with the other subsects today!" Arson gave a grin, "I can't wait to see Periphery in full training mode... Her aft, mostly."

"Periphery... Right."

It was coming back; Arson and Periphery would be assigned to Rescue Force Sigma 6, an older team, to replace their retired search and rescue and firefighting members. Heatwave had looked into their status when they'd awoken on Earth...RFS6 was lost in a battle shortly after the war, their ship caught in a spacebridge explosion.

"Well, come on!"

Heatwave followed him out the door and into the hall. Recruits of all the subsects were heading out towards the exit: search and rescue, lew enforcement, engineering, navigation, firefighting, medical... Heatwave found himself looking for his soon-to-be teammates, and spotted Chase polishing his armor as he wandered down the hall closer to him. "Chase."

The bot looked up, tilting his helm in confusion. "Yes...? I'm sorry, but have the two of us met?"

"Oh no, but I've heard about your...accomplishments on training missions. Very effective."

The little cadet blushed as he looked away, "Oh! Well... I guess it's alright... I can do better though, I just need to focus on logic, not letting the stress get to my processor."

Heatwave grinned, he'd forgotten how much more easily his police teammate could get flustered when complimented. Another bot then bumped into him and he turned around to look down as they laid sprawled on the floor, medical tools all over. "Oops."

"Oh no!" The bot whimpered, scrambling to collect his tools and return them to his satchel. "It was entirely my fault, sir! I'm just super, duper nervous, you know? We might be going to a real emergency and I want to be prepared-but I'm also scared, like _really_ scared-"

"Hey." Heatwave bent down and pulled the bot up to his feet, "Don't worry about it, you're going to be great."

The bot's optics lit up, "You think so?"

"BLADES!" A medical tutor barked, "Let's go!"

"C-Coming!" Blades scooped up his satchel and rushed past them.

"Come on, Heatwave!" Arson called from ahead.

Heatwave hurried. It was all coming back to him now, he remembered this day. He hadn't seen Boulder yet, but that was because he was going to be coming in from a separate building. He met up with Arson at the transport, looking around and locating Blades and Chase in the crowds. They were separated by group, so he couldn't be close to them now, but he would be soon... They just had to get to the training facility.

However, it didn't take that long, because as soon as he was seated on the transport, it felt like a jolt shot through his chassis and the whole scene changed. Arson was no longer there beside him, but instead Blades, now a little older, but still swinging his legs back and forth, his satchel held close to his chest.

"Be on your guard, recruits."  
Heatwave looked ahead, and recognized the teacher speaking as Blades' personal medical tutor. His voice was gruff and his tone that of someone who never accepted nonsense on the field, which was exactly how Heatwave remembered it. "The incident we have been assigned to work is a tricky one. Most of the hooligans have been removed from the vicinity, but keep a look out for anyone trying to swipe off your helm."

"Oh boy...!" Blades whimpered from his seat, no longer swinging his legs. "I thought this was going to just be a typical training session..."

"I'll protect you, you wimp." Heatwave found himself muttering with annoyance, "Nobody's jumpin' _me_!"

"And very few bots would attempt to jump Boulder here." Chase informed, pointing to the engineer seated beside him.

Boulder gave a grin, "We can always try to talk them down first, you know."

Heatwave would've smiled at his teammate's cheery disposition, but he remembered what happened this day... What they would see when they got there.  
He looked out the window as the transport rattled along, looking at the old establishments on the sides of the road. Looking back on this event and what he'd read after reaching Earth, none of them would be there for much longer. This area was one of the first to be obliterated when the fighting got tense...when the war truly got started. Oil houses, hotels for passing patrons, repair shops, all of it would soon be gone.

The road they took was not a well-maintained one, and Heatwave was nearly rattled out of his seat as they moved along. He planted one foot on the center aisle's floor, and one arm was tightly gripped to the back of the seat directly behind Blades' helm. Even remembering what was coming, he still found himself being thrown into the back of the seat in front of him as the whole transport lurched to a sudden stop. Blades' tools were scattered and when Heatwave lifted his helm from the floor, Chase was suddenly in the row ahead of where he had been. Primus, he did _not_ miss this particular assignment.

"Come on, you four! We have wounded to tend to!"

Blades jumped over Heatwave to be the first at the doors; not because he wanted to be first to get started, but because he knew his tutor would be onto him if he was not immediately on the job. "A medic waits for nothing!" He whimpered with a grin.

"Hmm... Alright let's go. Move it move it!"

Heatwave pulled himself up to his feet and wandered out into the disaster area that was what was left of an oil house. The front wall was blown outward, scorch marks littering the remaining structures and littered remains of tables and chairs.

"This is the outcome of a bar fight?" Blades worried, "I'm never drinking."

"More like the outcome of a bar fight that hit a fuel line." Boulder murmured as he bent down and examined the ground outside. "...Explosion."

"You two." The tutor pointed to Heatwave and Chase, and then to the interior. "Look for any other bots that might be trapped."

It seemed like such a useless chore, Heatwave knew most of the victims were outside of the building by now, too drunk to even know how injured they were. Heatwave stuck close to Chase, however, he knew what was coming this time-

"Spread out!"

Heatwave groaned, and he pushed Chase aside to look under one of the few booths still standing. He remembered that it was here, but as he pulled the table back, all he found was broken wall and debris. Was he remembering wrong? He turned around, "Chase-"

It was too late. Chase had walked back behind the front counter and then fell backward with a horrified cry. Heatwave stood up quickly and rushed around the counter to pull his teammate up from the floor. The policebot had still found it; the remains. Tears welled up in his optics, and then he dashed and scrambled over the debris back towards the entrance. He barely made it outside before he dropped again, heaving onto the ground.

"Chase?" Blades started towards him, but was cut off by their teacher.

"I'll handle it. You keep working."

Blades obeyed, but didn't seem happy about it.

Heatwave wasn't happy about it either, because he remembered what this day had started...How whatever it was that the tutor had said to Chase, it had changed his teammate. This was the last time Chase truly laughed, or cried... This was the last time he was himself. Even now, he could see the tutor's stern look and Chase's trembling helm shaking hard. He never shared what had been said, but just seeing that exchange was enough to make Heatwave's energon boil.

That was the last thing he saw before the scene was gone.  
Everything seemed to flip upside down, and soon enough he was falling. Only for a moment, and then he hit something else hard. He gave a pained grunt, and for a moment all he saw was the familiar darkness, until a voice came through.

_...Hey. Hey, I think he's comin' to._  
Kade's voice, clear as day, echoed in the aching bot's helm. He opened one optic, then the other, and was met with his partner's familiar face. "Good morning..."

Heatwave groaned, closing his optics again. "It's not a good one if I wake up to _you_..."

"He's fine." Blurr's voice informed, and Heatwave opened his optics again to find himself lying on the floor of the garage still, a heavy tarp draped over his body.

Boulder bent down, "You've been out of it for a while... Blades was worried he'd given you too much sedative."

Heatwave pulled one leg up underneath him, he was still in dinobot mode, and still aching. "H-How long...?"

"Almost three days." Blurr answered.

The firebot groaned, resting his helm down on the floor again. "Did I miss anything?"

"Mrs. Neederlander won Friday's bingo tournament, but that's about it." Blades patted his shoulder, "No major emergencies or disasters."

Heatwave was still for a moment, and then he felt the sparkling stretch. He grimaced, but it wasn't nearly as painful as their growth had been a few days ago. Most of the pain came from when he pulled himself up to his feet after being in one place for three days; his legs creaked, his neck joints popped as he stretched it up and looked around.

"You need to take it easy, Heatwave." Blades informed, "My scans are showing your carrying should end within the week."

The firebot gave a sigh of relief, it would soon be over.  
He then looked down to Kade, who was now standing over by the wall with a frown. "...I will...and if I need anything..." he watched Kade's frown shift to a mild smirk, "...I'll let you all know. Even if it's nothing."

"You did hear me..." Kade whispered.

"Now don't you go getting all confident there. This is one time, you hear me?"

Kade's smirk widened into a full smile, "Loud and clear, _Buddy._ Loud and clear..."


End file.
